Livestock depredation continues to hurt both ranchers and wolf recovery in the Southwest
International Wolf Center — Ely, Minnesota, 08/28/2006
Recent losses of both livestock and wolves are making many people unhappy with the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Wolf Reintroduction Program. Agency officials charged with reestablishing a sustainable Mexican wolf population are caught in the cross fire.
Already in 2006, officials have confirmed 19 cases of livestock being killed by wolves in the reintroduction area. In all of 2005, there were 22 confirmed, 7 probable and 7 possible wolf depredations on livestock. Although ranchers may receive some financial compensation for their losses, many wolf-killed livestock go unconfirmed and uncompensated.
While 2006 may or may not ultimately yield an unusually high number of livestock killed, there clearly has been an increase in the number of wolves killed for repeatedly killing livestock.
Since the first release of Mexican wolves into the wild in 1998, 7 wolves have been killed because of their depredation records. Four of those wolves were removed in 2006. Seven additional wolves died in in captivity in 2006 having been removed from the wild because they were part of the depredating packs. Biologists estimate a minimum of 35 to 50 Mexican wolves in the wild, so 11 wolves represents up to 22 to 31 percent loss to the total wild population.
The increased lethal control of depredating wolves this year may not be an indication that more wolves are depredating but that certain individual wolves are depredating more often. Wolves are removed from the wild when they are known or likely to have committed three depredation incidents within a period of 365 days. Each depredation incident may involve the loss of multiple livestock. A wolf involved in fewer than three depredation incidents in a 365-day period is considered a new wolf, and its depredation record is cleared, though managers and landowners may use nonlethal control methods such as relocation, harassment and hazing in hopes of preventing further depredation incidents and potentially avoiding lethal control.
In an effort to augment the breeding wolf population now in the wild and to maintain the genetic diversity of the current population, biologists have released 4 new wolves to the recovery area.
The management program is in a tough spot. The ability of Mexican wolf managers to control depredating wolves is essential to the success of the program. Teams of scientists, ranchers and environmentalists are searching for ways to affordably prevent and fairly compensate for depredation. Mitigating depredation may give wolves a better chance of expanding their population in the region, though the costs and challenges are great.
The Mexican Wolf Adaptive Management Oversight Committee (AMOC) has developed 37 recommendations for addressing the most fundamental objections to the current wolf management program, including depredation response protocols. These recommendations grew out of the extensive five-year review of the program conducted by the AMOC and representatives of multiple agencies involved with the fieldwork to identify and implement improvements in the project. The AMOC is hosting a workshop on August 2930, 2006, to provide a forum for discussion of issues pertaining to Mexican wolf reintroduction in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area of Arizona and New Mexico. The workshop is open to the public and will be held at the White Mountain Apache Tribes Hon-Dah Resort and Casino, Pinetop, Arizona.